Part 2 of tolerating the humdrum
I hit the ground running at the beginning of October following a less than ideal September.
It started off with me finally getting my laptop back from Apple after having dealt with its overheating and bad battery life post-Sonoma update. Got an A on an assignment. I thought that I had it all together because “new month, new me.”
But nope. Life had other plans!
I accidentally cracked my laptop screen (ultimately killing my beloved 2019 MacBook Pro altogether), I had a daily recurring sense of ennui, and have overall felt burnt out and unmotivated since the start of the semester. I’ve been severely behind with everything and, after talking with many classmates and friends, I realized I’m not the only one.
For a lot of students, there’s just something about this semester that has not been it. I don’t know if it’s the classes I’ve taken, or just the vibe overall, but fall 2024 semester has not been particularly exceptional.
So, here we are, yet again, writing about how I’m going to re-set for November.
Read a book over the course of the month that has nothing to do with school. Yeah, yeah. “I don’t have time.” But if you space your work out, you will. Do a half hour of school work, and reward yourself with a chapter of your new book. Maybe even get a mindless book that’s the literary equivalent of a cheesy, predictable, Hallmark movie.
Do some form of daily movement. Whether that’s walking to the next bus stop when you see that your bus is coming in ten minutes instead of two, taking a quick HIIT class before going home to study, or even following a yoga video on YouTube, get your daily movement in, because it’ll help you refresh a bit.
Do some networking on LinkedIn. It’ll take your mind off of school but will still be productive for your future; the two go hand in hand. If you haven’t made a LinkedIn account already, then go do so.
Watch some comfort TV. Not necessarily to reset, but to bring a sense of comfort as the days get shorter and it’s dark outside at 4:30 p.m. For me, this time of year calls for some Charlie Brown episodes in particular, “Anne of Green Gables”, and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
Do a deep clean. I’ll go out on a whim here and make the assumption that many of us started this month hungover, which is okay, but once that truly horrific feeling of let-me-just-hunch-over-my-toilet bowl-for-now has completely dispersed, do some light cleaning to tidy up. Toss your bedsheets in the laundry and run your dishwasher, and maybe take a quick nap if needed.
Goal setting. Whether it’s personal or professional goals, physically writing them down helps to put them out into the universe.
Eat some really good chocolate. I have done my best to preserve and savour the chocolate that I got from Switzerland, but I fear that it’ll all be gone within the next two weeks. I don’t know about the rest of you, but having some good chocolate makes me motivated to do some work — it’s like a reward.
Go through, and delete, people from your contacts. If you haven’t talked to them or seen them, even if you live in the same area as them and could potentially see them, the universe removes people from your life that you don’t need, and you should too.
That’s all for this month!
